2025-W13 EOW Report

Anti-Goal Cycling

• Still learning mountain dialect for prj: MERCI. It’s fun, but I know I need to shift and get something written for Rambo’s ASSW as I’m up for the final week, but also, I need something to present to Snyder for our 1on1 session.
• Wrapped up The Return of Martin Guerre (1983) on Thursday night, emailed Tworek on Friday, was assigned two articles. One by Robert Finlay The Refashioning of Martin Guerre (1988). And OMG, this is hilarious. It’s historians being catty. I totally get Finlay though, it does appear Davis made up a lot of shit and has absolutely no evidence to back any of it up. So thank god I’m writing historical fiction and I’m allowed to do what Davis did, which is reinterpret history by slopping on tons of psychological intentions, subtle reactions, and all sorts of emotional interiority that’s not backed up by anything and I won’t get in trouble for it. It’s Saturday night as I type this and I want to get the other Martin Guerre related article Tworek sent me, On the Lame (1988), which appears in the same issue of The American Historical Association Vol. 93, No. 3.
• Been thinking a lot about the next iteration of the TEN RULES. I want to change “STFU and Do the Work” to “Do the Actual Work”. I feel like figuring out the ten ARCs has given me a lot of confidence to finally draft stories, but I’m now finding myself drifting to sidebars, tangents, and meanderings into… well mountain dialect, Renaissance history as per above, Vancouver’s history, temptations to learn the I-Ching, and diving back into Tarot… all for more story grist. But none of that is doing the actual work of plotting arcs, drafting scenes. I want the daily thirty minute sessions to be ACTUAL DRAFTING of said scenes, but I can’t draft said scenes until I have a good arc and enough confidence in the historical/terminology/world of the story. So I need to rethink how I can move faster on SOMETHING that’s not the ambitious learning of stuff stories. Maybe the next solution here is to make a list of “worlds” that I do know inside out and I know I can draft a story out of without the rabbit holes of research, despite it being fun and interesting. Perhaps they are simultaneous paths wherein yes, research into varying subject matters occur concurrently with drafting of stories I have confidence enough to write about world building wise. Because a rule I would like to sneak in also is “Draft Every Spare Moment”, which will replace “Dawdling = Lost Fiction Time”, which is true, but passive and negative, whereas “Draft Every Spare Moment” is active and positive and gives me that sense of chasing and hunting that I know catalyzes me. It’s gamified.

Four Thousand Weeks

• Moving offices for the fifth time? CMPNY was desk, then that corner office, then another corner office, the one with the support pillar, then Regus, then current, and now two doors down? What is that? Technically six moves, but five offices, right? That last one in CMPNY, wait, I was in that one twice due to COVID. First time with RF, the advertising photographer turned day trader, second time because of social distancing. Right. ANYWAY. Moving offices because smaller, cheaper, and the co-working office near my house which I thought I could finagle into since eldest is graduating in June and so doesn’t require me being in Port Moody anymore ended up having minuscule rooms for several hundred dollars more. So. In spite of the drive out, I think I will stay out there. Rent’s going up in December, so maybe that might change things again? I don’t know. That’s a problem for in-nine-months future me. Picked up a monitor arm. FINALLY. Neck’s been hurting. There’s an IKEA standing desk in the new office already, going to install the monitor arm, look straight at it instead of tilting down. Kinda how I have my laptop at home right now sitting on a Rooster at the highest setting possible – which just so happens to be eye level if I move my chair down to the lowest level.
• Fairly good week again on the habits. Hit all my marks. Reached level 100 on Habitica and bought an Orb of Rebirth for free. Playing through as a cleric this time because you know me. I eat my vegetables first and frankly, I see the role of a cleric as so so so dull. I don’t really care for rogue either. So maybe I’ll do that one next. I might even not bother with getting to level 100 before I reset. I just want the equipment achievement medal anyway.
• So a past client is going bankrupt and there is talent to be headhunted. (Is it still head hunting if they’re all laid off? I guess not). Anyway. Introduced one person to Client A. Think this person would be a good fit. And this other person, have a second degree client that could be good for them. And then there’s the question of one of my past hires. There’s a lot of shuffling going on here. I am surprisingly good at this.

Story Introspection

• Finished Resurrection Man (1997). Or at least the fourteen issues included in the trade paperback I got used at my LCS. It’s excellent. Tommy Monaghan the hitman was a source of much laughter. Unfortunately, the rest of the run is not collected in print, which is fine, I have DC Infinite. As for other comics this past week… so many. The X-Manhunt crossover finale wasn’t horrible as I dreaded. It was setup for Hickman’s Imperial with Xavier heading to space with Lilandra… and I am excited for Hickman doing space stories, and in retrospect, the entire crossover event wasn’t all that bad. X-Force was the weak point. Literally two stories. One with Sage during the crossover event, the other half intercut in was Thorne’s ongoing series rushing towards a #10 cancellation. The winner, in my opinion, was Eve L. Ewing just refusing to play. ROFL. GOOD FOR HER. Fuck this crossover bullshit, I got my own story to tell. I’ll drop a text message mention. How ‘bout that? No seriously, the villain reveal at the end of #7 was awesome and I’m so glad Ewing did whatever it is she did to nope out of a crossover. Other standouts? Oh man. This was a good week. My LCS owner told me this was the busiest week in four years of releases. He tried to sneak a copy of Hush 2/ H2SH into my pull box and I was like nope, didn’t ask for it, don’t care for it, not interested in Batman. I tried, man. I tried Catwoman, I tried Poison Ivy, I tried Two-Face. I just don’t care for street level superheroes. The only reason I’m pulling Absolute Batman is because it’s Absolute and it’s so absurd, but also Snyder. Frankly, I also vaguely recall reading the first Hush and not really caring for it? So.
• Short Stories this week. The Beau Monde of Mrs. Bridge (1955) by Evan S. Connell. Reminds me of Pelican Song (2004) by Mary-Beth Hughes. Just another character who’s so sheltered, so privileged, so enclosed in a vacuum that they blithely saunter through life, never offending, never pushing, never truly trying anything serious, and while bad things happen all around them, they just keep floating through the world. Something that’s been on my mind since these two short stories is if I can write a fantasy short like this. Maybe have an idiotic nobleman just blithely walk through a dungeon while the party he’s assembled are killing monsters, getting treasure, and this idiot has no idea what’s really going on. Would be a fun exercise.
• Are you watching The Studio (2025)????!!! OMG. Watch it.

Archive of all EOW reports here